No.6 Anime Review
It'd be hard for me to review the No.6 anime as a standalone series. I'm invested enough in the novels that my mind automatically recalls all the corresponding scenes from the books when I watch the anime, so I can't help but compare the two. And so I'm not going to try to review this as a standalone series, I'll be judging it as an adaptation. However, that doesn't mean I'm going to judge whether or not they managed to fit in all the major scenes from the novel or stuck to them faithfully. It's been said many times - this is an 11 episode adaptation of a 9 volume novel series. There was no hope since the beginning that they'd be able to squeeze everything in. With this sort of adaptation, you need to animate only the important parts, simplify the plot, change it around, replace some aspects with anime original bits, and so on to make it work. Bones did all of that, but did they make it work? I'll be blunt - I don't think they did.
Many people have blamed Noitamina's 11 episode restriction for all of the anime's weaknesses. 22 episodes would have been nice - with that amount, we could have seen the novels animated to the last detail. But the story of No.6 is quite a simple and straightforward one. With 22 episodes, I think the anime would become a somewhat tedious watch since the plot would just inch along until the infiltration, and even then the infiltration might be too dragged out (it was pretty dragged out in the novels as it is). 13 episodes would have been a great number - about 2 episodes each for the first 4 volumes and 1 episode each for the last 5. Looking at it from that perspective, a decent 11 episode adaptation is doable. 2 episodes is a lot to cut out from 13, but it should be manageable. And yet there were many problems with the anime besides a rushed plot, which is why I think all the weaknesses of this adaptation mainly stemmed from Bones' staff, not the episode count.
Minakami Seishi isn't exactly regarded as the greatest in terms of script and series composition, and I can see why. I remember Railgun leaving a bad taste in my mouth and I've heard bad things about KamiMemo as well. His decisions in No.6 are at about the same level - the reordered plot in the first 7 episodes (4 volumes) still leaves me kind of confused. When the first signs of rearranging the events from the novels appeared, I thought "okay, not a bad thing. they're rushing forward to get to the good stuff, no problem." Except they ended up animating all the scenes from the novel anyway, just the different ordering meant that the logic behind the flow of events was lost. So what was the point of reordering in the first place? I still don't know why they decided to stick in Nezumi and Inukashi's fight in episode 4. There wasn't really much of a reason for that. In fact I think presenting logic was one of the weakest points of the anime. I've seen a good number of anime-only viewers going "wait, why did that happen?" in response to many scenes. I didn't notice it much since my mind automatically filled in all the gaps, but after reading other people's thoughts I realized how the anime takes so many giant leaps in logic. The best example would be the kidnapping scene in episode 9. They didn't show what actually went on and a lot of anime-only viewers just ended up confused. Of course it's difficult to do with this adaptation - the events of the novels are very connected to each other so it's hard to take any major scenes out. But that's why you need to replace it with something anime original that presents the same logic needed in a different manner, or at least just not skimp out on the explanations and leave the viewers lost and confused. Or hell, just skip it entirely and modify the plot around it. There's only 11 episodes anyway.
I mentioned earlier that it would have been possible to make a decent adaptation in 11 episodes if they cut down a bit. I thought it might work out, but then they started introducing anime original scenes with Safu. About 1 1//2 episodes worth. Why did they do that? I was worried since episode 5 that all her anime original scenes wouldn't end up amounting to anything in the end and only rush the rest of the story even more. I was hoping for Bones to actually do something with all that anime original material, but no, it was exactly as I had feared. Safu got fleshed out more early on, but it was at the expense of her scenes later, which were many times more interesting and important. Regrettable. And on top of that, they even rehashed a few of the same chapters from the novel. The Nezumi vs Inukashi fights in episodes 4 and 7 were the same scene in the novels, and if you thought Shion and Nezumi's conversations were repetitive, it's because they skimmed over a scene one time and later went back to fully animate it again. Bones was pressed for time already, but then they went and put in fillers and animated the same scenes twice. Not a decision I can understand.
The lack of monologues was also a big weak point. They were my favorite part of the novels since they portrayed the characters' emotions in such detail, most significantly Shion's of course. I'd say Shion's monologues are about 60~70% of the reason why I like his character so much. Nagasaki Kenji took on the challenge of attempting to not include the monologues and portray the emotions visually instead, but I can't help but think it was too much to handle for a first time director like him. I was never really emotionally invested in the anime, everything felt like it just brushed the surface in terms of emotion. Which is why episode 1 still remains my favorite - it took its time to show the characters' thoughts and feelings visually instead of outright saying them and it actually worked out really nicely. I wish I could say the same for the rest of the show.
But despite all that, I still thought it was a pretty okay adaptation. There were some blunders and slip-ups along the way, but the show always managed to get back on its feet and move on. Even the most major problems were forgivable, and I considered it a perfectly acceptable adaptation.
And then episode 11 happened.
I'm not sure how long it's going to take me to get over episode 11. I'd like to forget it as soon as possible, but that's easier said than done. It's not that I was frustrated that they weren't faithful to the novels, I don't think the novel's ending was perfect anyway. Considering how much of the novels they had left to cover, anime original was a given. No, what I hated was that it went directly against the novels. Not against the events that happened but against the ideas that it presented, which were also the ideas that the anime itself presented. The ending was the type of ending I hate most - the type that tramples over its own messages that the entire rest of show spent so much time building up.
The worst offender was, of course, Shion's death and revival. Yes, the idea of "destruction and rebirth" is very prominent in No.6 - the rebirth of the planet after destruction by war, the rebirth of No.6 after its collapse, and the rebirth of Shion's soul after meeting Nezumi and having his entire world change. But "life and death" is also a very important theme, in the literal meaning of those words. Live on with your own power, don't let anyone else handle your life for you, and while death is unfortunate, it can't be undone. Why did Shion die? Why was he revived? There was no reason for either. A meaningless death and a meaningless revival. Both have been very heavy subjects since the early days of fiction, and the way the last episode made light of them was just insulting.
On the topic of important themes, we have the obvious "man vs nature", which the last episode took to be "giant sparkling yellow tornadoes and bees kill everything." No.6 wasn't exactly anti-nature, it just tried to use nature to its own advantage. The collapse of No.6 was caused by No.6 itself, Elyurias was just a catalyst. In fact I would consider this theme in the novels to be more "mankind vs itself", but the anime just... had sparkling yellow things. Yeah.
Then there was the baby. The baby's significance in the novels: giving Inukashi someone to care about that's not a dog, letting her discover how to love a human, and letting her grow up and experience a very important part of life. Why did she give him back to Shion in the end? "He saved the baby's life, so now he has to bear the responsibility of raising him up"? Does it have to be like that? All that development did was trample over Inukashi's character. She's not the type to push the responsibility onto someone else, even if it was pushed onto her in the first place. If it had to end like that, then they shouldn't have included the baby at all.
Nothing was explained in the end. Not because they tried and failed, but because they didn't even attempt to. Shion stepping on the data chip conveyed two messages to me: One, Bones is giving the viewers the middle finger and two, they gave up. Yes, that's how I saw it - they couldn't manage to wrap up the plot, so they just crushed it under their feet and abandoned it instead. It's Bones telling us that they failed.
"We'll surely meet again" - the most quoted and most memorable line from the novels since it ended. The line that's been repeated over and over again since volume 5. Nezumi's signature line. Nezumi's conviction. Nezumi's final words. They gave it to Shion instead. Why? That just hurt.
The ending went against everything that No.6 stands for, and that saddens and angers me. This is the first time I've thought "I would have preferred 'rocks fall, everyone dies'" in response to an ending. At least killing off Shion and Nezumi would have had some meaning rather than that revival BS. It would have shown that Bones has guts and left a giant impact on the viewers. But no, they shot themselves - and the viewers - in the foot instead. Do I think the last episode ruined the entire show for me? Yes, I do. Because so much was riding on that ending, and they couldn't have done a worse job of it.
Well, it's not like the entire show was bad. There were plenty of memorable moments. I loved the dancing scene, the manhunt, the fight in episode 10, and honestly all the anime original bits were really nicely done if you ignore the fact that they might have been a major cause of the terrible ending. And Eve. The anime gave us Eve, which is probably the best thing they did. And while not directly part of the anime, I'll always believe toi8 is the best concept designer they could have hired for this show.
But right now the awful ending still overshadows any other opinion I have. Fractale is still the worst Noitamina anime, but I can't decide whether it or No.6 had the worse ending. That speaks for itself. In the end No.6 is just another victim of Noitamina's "brain" time slot, another show that was just too complicated for the number of episodes it was given. I can't complain about the adaptation existing in the first place though. It's incredibly rare for a YA novel to get animated, and the anime was the one that introduced me to the novels in the first place (well actually the manga did, but the anime's announcement made me aware of the novel's existence and the manga is just a side effect of the anime adaptation anyway). I'm glad I met No.6. The anime was just a fairly smooth ride that crashed and burned at the end. This might sound incredibly pretentious of me, but ironically the most prominent literature reference from the novels (and the quote they keep putting on anime merchandise) really reminds me of how the show went:
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
Final rating 6/10. 7.5/10 ignoring the last episode. It was nice knowing you, No.6.
So what's after this? We still have all the BD/DVD releases, which will each contain a drama CD. That's something to look forward to. I'd be looking a lot more forward to them if I knew Asano had any involvement in writing them, but I'm guessing they're all just Minakami. I'll still be on the lookout for them though, and any other merch/BD news. This journal won't be dead for a while.
Many people have blamed Noitamina's 11 episode restriction for all of the anime's weaknesses. 22 episodes would have been nice - with that amount, we could have seen the novels animated to the last detail. But the story of No.6 is quite a simple and straightforward one. With 22 episodes, I think the anime would become a somewhat tedious watch since the plot would just inch along until the infiltration, and even then the infiltration might be too dragged out (it was pretty dragged out in the novels as it is). 13 episodes would have been a great number - about 2 episodes each for the first 4 volumes and 1 episode each for the last 5. Looking at it from that perspective, a decent 11 episode adaptation is doable. 2 episodes is a lot to cut out from 13, but it should be manageable. And yet there were many problems with the anime besides a rushed plot, which is why I think all the weaknesses of this adaptation mainly stemmed from Bones' staff, not the episode count.
Minakami Seishi isn't exactly regarded as the greatest in terms of script and series composition, and I can see why. I remember Railgun leaving a bad taste in my mouth and I've heard bad things about KamiMemo as well. His decisions in No.6 are at about the same level - the reordered plot in the first 7 episodes (4 volumes) still leaves me kind of confused. When the first signs of rearranging the events from the novels appeared, I thought "okay, not a bad thing. they're rushing forward to get to the good stuff, no problem." Except they ended up animating all the scenes from the novel anyway, just the different ordering meant that the logic behind the flow of events was lost. So what was the point of reordering in the first place? I still don't know why they decided to stick in Nezumi and Inukashi's fight in episode 4. There wasn't really much of a reason for that. In fact I think presenting logic was one of the weakest points of the anime. I've seen a good number of anime-only viewers going "wait, why did that happen?" in response to many scenes. I didn't notice it much since my mind automatically filled in all the gaps, but after reading other people's thoughts I realized how the anime takes so many giant leaps in logic. The best example would be the kidnapping scene in episode 9. They didn't show what actually went on and a lot of anime-only viewers just ended up confused. Of course it's difficult to do with this adaptation - the events of the novels are very connected to each other so it's hard to take any major scenes out. But that's why you need to replace it with something anime original that presents the same logic needed in a different manner, or at least just not skimp out on the explanations and leave the viewers lost and confused. Or hell, just skip it entirely and modify the plot around it. There's only 11 episodes anyway.
I mentioned earlier that it would have been possible to make a decent adaptation in 11 episodes if they cut down a bit. I thought it might work out, but then they started introducing anime original scenes with Safu. About 1 1//2 episodes worth. Why did they do that? I was worried since episode 5 that all her anime original scenes wouldn't end up amounting to anything in the end and only rush the rest of the story even more. I was hoping for Bones to actually do something with all that anime original material, but no, it was exactly as I had feared. Safu got fleshed out more early on, but it was at the expense of her scenes later, which were many times more interesting and important. Regrettable. And on top of that, they even rehashed a few of the same chapters from the novel. The Nezumi vs Inukashi fights in episodes 4 and 7 were the same scene in the novels, and if you thought Shion and Nezumi's conversations were repetitive, it's because they skimmed over a scene one time and later went back to fully animate it again. Bones was pressed for time already, but then they went and put in fillers and animated the same scenes twice. Not a decision I can understand.
The lack of monologues was also a big weak point. They were my favorite part of the novels since they portrayed the characters' emotions in such detail, most significantly Shion's of course. I'd say Shion's monologues are about 60~70% of the reason why I like his character so much. Nagasaki Kenji took on the challenge of attempting to not include the monologues and portray the emotions visually instead, but I can't help but think it was too much to handle for a first time director like him. I was never really emotionally invested in the anime, everything felt like it just brushed the surface in terms of emotion. Which is why episode 1 still remains my favorite - it took its time to show the characters' thoughts and feelings visually instead of outright saying them and it actually worked out really nicely. I wish I could say the same for the rest of the show.
But despite all that, I still thought it was a pretty okay adaptation. There were some blunders and slip-ups along the way, but the show always managed to get back on its feet and move on. Even the most major problems were forgivable, and I considered it a perfectly acceptable adaptation.
And then episode 11 happened.
I'm not sure how long it's going to take me to get over episode 11. I'd like to forget it as soon as possible, but that's easier said than done. It's not that I was frustrated that they weren't faithful to the novels, I don't think the novel's ending was perfect anyway. Considering how much of the novels they had left to cover, anime original was a given. No, what I hated was that it went directly against the novels. Not against the events that happened but against the ideas that it presented, which were also the ideas that the anime itself presented. The ending was the type of ending I hate most - the type that tramples over its own messages that the entire rest of show spent so much time building up.
The worst offender was, of course, Shion's death and revival. Yes, the idea of "destruction and rebirth" is very prominent in No.6 - the rebirth of the planet after destruction by war, the rebirth of No.6 after its collapse, and the rebirth of Shion's soul after meeting Nezumi and having his entire world change. But "life and death" is also a very important theme, in the literal meaning of those words. Live on with your own power, don't let anyone else handle your life for you, and while death is unfortunate, it can't be undone. Why did Shion die? Why was he revived? There was no reason for either. A meaningless death and a meaningless revival. Both have been very heavy subjects since the early days of fiction, and the way the last episode made light of them was just insulting.
On the topic of important themes, we have the obvious "man vs nature", which the last episode took to be "giant sparkling yellow tornadoes and bees kill everything." No.6 wasn't exactly anti-nature, it just tried to use nature to its own advantage. The collapse of No.6 was caused by No.6 itself, Elyurias was just a catalyst. In fact I would consider this theme in the novels to be more "mankind vs itself", but the anime just... had sparkling yellow things. Yeah.
Then there was the baby. The baby's significance in the novels: giving Inukashi someone to care about that's not a dog, letting her discover how to love a human, and letting her grow up and experience a very important part of life. Why did she give him back to Shion in the end? "He saved the baby's life, so now he has to bear the responsibility of raising him up"? Does it have to be like that? All that development did was trample over Inukashi's character. She's not the type to push the responsibility onto someone else, even if it was pushed onto her in the first place. If it had to end like that, then they shouldn't have included the baby at all.
Nothing was explained in the end. Not because they tried and failed, but because they didn't even attempt to. Shion stepping on the data chip conveyed two messages to me: One, Bones is giving the viewers the middle finger and two, they gave up. Yes, that's how I saw it - they couldn't manage to wrap up the plot, so they just crushed it under their feet and abandoned it instead. It's Bones telling us that they failed.
"We'll surely meet again" - the most quoted and most memorable line from the novels since it ended. The line that's been repeated over and over again since volume 5. Nezumi's signature line. Nezumi's conviction. Nezumi's final words. They gave it to Shion instead. Why? That just hurt.
The ending went against everything that No.6 stands for, and that saddens and angers me. This is the first time I've thought "I would have preferred 'rocks fall, everyone dies'" in response to an ending. At least killing off Shion and Nezumi would have had some meaning rather than that revival BS. It would have shown that Bones has guts and left a giant impact on the viewers. But no, they shot themselves - and the viewers - in the foot instead. Do I think the last episode ruined the entire show for me? Yes, I do. Because so much was riding on that ending, and they couldn't have done a worse job of it.
Well, it's not like the entire show was bad. There were plenty of memorable moments. I loved the dancing scene, the manhunt, the fight in episode 10, and honestly all the anime original bits were really nicely done if you ignore the fact that they might have been a major cause of the terrible ending. And Eve. The anime gave us Eve, which is probably the best thing they did. And while not directly part of the anime, I'll always believe toi8 is the best concept designer they could have hired for this show.
But right now the awful ending still overshadows any other opinion I have. Fractale is still the worst Noitamina anime, but I can't decide whether it or No.6 had the worse ending. That speaks for itself. In the end No.6 is just another victim of Noitamina's "brain" time slot, another show that was just too complicated for the number of episodes it was given. I can't complain about the adaptation existing in the first place though. It's incredibly rare for a YA novel to get animated, and the anime was the one that introduced me to the novels in the first place (well actually the manga did, but the anime's announcement made me aware of the novel's existence and the manga is just a side effect of the anime adaptation anyway). I'm glad I met No.6. The anime was just a fairly smooth ride that crashed and burned at the end. This might sound incredibly pretentious of me, but ironically the most prominent literature reference from the novels (and the quote they keep putting on anime merchandise) really reminds me of how the show went:
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
Final rating 6/10. 7.5/10 ignoring the last episode. It was nice knowing you, No.6.
So what's after this? We still have all the BD/DVD releases, which will each contain a drama CD. That's something to look forward to. I'd be looking a lot more forward to them if I knew Asano had any involvement in writing them, but I'm guessing they're all just Minakami. I'll still be on the lookout for them though, and any other merch/BD news. This journal won't be dead for a while.